Bay Area Houston

Will the 18-24 year olds come out to vote this year?

This is kind of disturbing. As of today there are over 94,000 registered voters in House District 129. 9564 of these are between the age of 18-24. There are registration drives across the district at high schools and colleges. Hopefully those who take the time to register will take the time to vote.

As they have said “If not now, when? If not you, who?”

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing decades behind bars if convicted for his 3 felony indictments. He has been successful in pushing his trial past the November 6 election. If elected, Paxton may have to give up his seat in our government and take a seat in a minimum security penitentiary.

If elected and convicted the Governor will be allowed to hand pick a new Attorney General, the people’s attorney not selected by the people. Paxton’s million dollar lawyers have been able to delay his trial for 3 years and his trial will be conveniently convened (here in Houston) after the election.

Paxton and the republican leaders probably know how serious the charges are and the possibility of Paxton being convicted. Pushing the trial pass the election protects Paxton and the party just in case he is elected and convicted. This way they will retain the seat and Paxton would probably agree to a plea deal in order to retain his pension and free healthcare for life and for the rest of his life.

Voters shouldn’t take a chance with Paxton. The “peoples lawyer” should be selected by the people not by lawyers and party members. Paxton isn’t using his office to better the lives of Texans. Currently he is leading the charge to remove pre-existing coverage for all Texans. Diabetes and other medical conditions do not discriminate against republicans or any party affiliation. Most every family has a member with a pre-exiting condition. And even after pressure from the business community, Paxton has continued to lead the charge against DACA immigrants which could cause severe shortage in the work force. (Besides the fact that it is just incredibly mean spirited and short sighted)

Paxton shouldn’t be running for Attorney General. He shouldn’t be running for anything. As his buddy Donald Trump has said “You can’t be serving the people while under indictment.” For once I have to agree with that rotten bastard.

UPDATE: El Tiempo Cantina has removed the pic on their Facebook page early this morning and has now removed their Facebook pages!

I’ve tried to eat at El Tiempo Cantina here in Clear Lake but it has always been too crowded. Then I saw the menu and the prices. $29.99 for 1/2 lb of fajitas? Yeow! But I digest…digress….

The chef-owner of El Tiempo Richmond received a well deserved social media beat down for posting a pic of himself with the United States Attorney General Jeff Session saying “we had the honor to server Jeff Sessions”. (his words not mine)

Everyone who owns a restaurant has the right to serve who they want, after all this is America. But everyone also has the right not to eat there especially after a half baked decision to post this pic to their Facebook page. This bothers me for a number of reasons.

Sessions is well known for his hateful, racist, policy of separating brown faced children from parents who are seeking asylum and help from the United States. The policy is racist, inhuman, rotten, and happily implemented with honor by Jeff Session against Latino families. It is just that simple.

Sessions could have taken his fat ass to a local barbecue restaurant. Instead Sessions picks a Mexican restaurant just like the Director Homeland Security did. She was heckled to the point of having to leave. Sessions on the other hand was served with honor and a pic was taken with him. 

Its like Sessions did this on purpose to rub his racist policies into the faces of the Latino community with the help of the restaurant chef-owner. The owner had the opportunity to look Sessions in the eye and respectfully tell him “El Tiempo does not in anyway support the practice of separating children from parents or any other practices of the government relative to immigration. Enjoy your food.” and leave it like that. Take his order. Serve him his goddamn food. Give him the bill. That is all he need to do but instead he joined Sessions rubbing one out in the restaurant.

The response from social media to his obvious delight in posting the pic was quick. Quick enough for him to quickly remove the photo and quickly attempt a lame defense. It was quick. And I’m not buying it. I’m not buying his damn food either. It’s America after all.

BTW. Sessions ordered the $29.99 fajita plate and tea with extra ICE.

What an incredibly stupid, ignorant idea. Lucky for trump he had a stooge, Vice President Pence, around to pitch it for him. From the Washington Post:

“Just as we’ve done in ages past, the United States will meet the emerging threats on this new battlefield,” he said in a speech at the Pentagon. “The time has come to establish the United States Space Force.”

Yeah. He said that. Turns out the only person who thinks this is a good idea is trump. Even Pence acted Luke Skywalker warm to it, but his daddy told him to sell it. And he did but not sell it very well. Pence forgot to mention this idea has an out of this world price tag of $8Billion for initial setup. None of which will go towards exploring space, going back to the Moon or working towards Mars. None.

On top of that there will be a need for another layer of Generals, Colonels, Majors, Captains, and Lieutenants as well as their personal assistants and staff required to manage the new military branch of space roving Buzz Lightyears. This all costs even more money for the military complex.

Pence was standing in-between the Boeing CST-100 and the Space X Dragon mock ups as if NASA will have anything to do with this Space Farce. With a $1.5 Trillion deficit, a looming $40Billion Worthless Wall that Mexico will be paying for, and about $12Billion for a proposed Ike Dike to protect the insurance industry, there isn’t much money available to fund Trump’s Space Farce. 

Maybe they will raid NASA’s funding. That would almost be funny. Almost.

How can any teacher or anyone with a pre-existing condition vote for this man?

A few years ago State Representative Joe Driver plead guilty to a felony of “double dipping”. The Texas Tribune summed it up:

State Rep. Joe Driver, who candidly acknowledged pocketing taxpayer reimbursements for travel paid by his campaign, will enter a guilty plea on abuse-of-office charges, a third-degree felony, a top prosecutor said Tuesday night.

Driver stole about $50,000. He eventually negotiated a sentence of only 3 years probation. It was an incredibly sweet deal since it protected his $62,000/year pension and his free healthcare for himself and his family.

This is what Ken Paxton is going to do. In 2015, a grand jury indicted Paxton on three criminal charges: two counts of securities fraud (a first-degree felony) and one count of failing to register with state securities regulators (a third-degree felony). His trial has been delayed till after the election. If Paxton is convicted you can bet he will pull a Joe Driver to protect his $55,000 pension and his free healthcare provided by you, us, me, the taxpayer.

Elected officials receive a pension based upon the salary of a District Judge, $158,000 even though Representatives and Senators are not full time positions. Based upon his service of 15 years Paxton would receive atop $55,000/year and would have healthcare for life for himself and his wife.

A teacher with decades of full time service would be lucky to receive a $25,000 pension and would have to pay for their healthcare. From the Houston Chronicle:

Health care costs soared Monday for many retired educators on the state-subsidized insurance plan, with families now facing $1,000 monthly premiums and out-of-pocket costs rising across-the-board.

$1000/month while Paxton, a soon to be felon, will pay nothing. But wait….it gets worse. Paxton is leading the fight to remove the pre-existing condition mandate from health insurance policies. From the Dallas Observer:

The attorney general, as he made clear in the court filing, wants a federal judge to end the act’s protections for Texans with pre-existing conditions, regardless of whether the court rules against Obamacare as a whole.

It’s enough to make you sick. Literally.

Self financing a million dollar campaign for public office must be a thing for republicans.

Hallelujah! Photo from the Dallas Observer

Don Huffines is a multimillionaire. He recently completed a trip to Russia to meet with other wealthy Russian individuals. He was elected to the Texas Senate in 2014 edging out John Carona in the Republican primary. His Libertarian challenger dropped out of the race in the general election.

According to the Texas Tribune his 2018 Democratic opponent Nathan Johnson stated:

“Over the last few weeks, I’ve crisscrossed the district talking to constituents about the many challenges we face right here in Senate District 16,” Johnson wrote. “Meanwhile, my Trump-defending opponent Don Huffines decided to go on a Moscow adventure this week with Rand Paul instead, to ‘improve parliamentary relations’ with Russia. What does this say about his priorities?”

His priorities are clear. According to his ethics reports he has raised $7.4 million for his primary win with about 15,000 votes, about $500 per vote. Much like Kathaleen Wall who invested $6 Million for a Congressional primary (and lost), and David Mayes Middleton who invested $1.5 Million for his State House primary win, Huffines invested $6 Million for his primary win for a State Senate seat. Out of his $7.4 fundraising haul 81% came from his own pocket!

$7.4 Million might be an appropriate amount to raise for a very competitive Congressional race but it is an obscene amount for a State Senate race and much less for a primary. It’s pretty clear. Just like Middleton, Huffines bought a seat at our table. At least the republican voters in CD2 didn’t buy Kathaleen Wall’s buying of her seat. 

Besides his own $6 million, Huffines raised $1.4 million, the vast majority coming from high dollar donors. Only $15,000 (1%) came from donations less than $200 from about 125 donors. $1.35 Million (92%) came from about 200 wealthy donors of $1000 or more, including a $100,000 donation from Donald Huffines, $115,000 from Carl Allen, $65,000 from Andrew Beal and $63,000 from Huffines relatives. 

Unfortunately the republican voters do not mind if a seat is bought by a wealthy candidate. This is who they are. 

Texas Congressman Pete Olson sent out this tweet early Saturday morning:

CA & other states are allowing non-U.S. citizens & illegal immigrants to vote in local elections. This is another attempt by the radical left to destroy election integrity in the U.S. Take my survey and let me know what you think of this policy. https://t.co/di5urImcwb

— Pete Olson (@PeteOlson) August 4, 2018

You might think ourcauseourvoice.com is an organization that performs research into voting patterns, policies, and issues such as the one Olson claims as a fact when it fact, it is just his own campaign website. Olson, without one single bit of supporting evidence, claims Americans are “allowing” illegal immigrants to vote. Only an idiot would think this is happening or it’s even possible.

Think how hard this would be to accomplish. Besides risking the many felony indictments, someone would have to find an illegal immigrant. Then get an ID with an address of a registered voter. Then go vote and hope that person hasn’t voted before. Or someone could register illegally, risk being caught, charged, and deported. And then they would need hundreds if not thousands to throw an election.

Olson has adopted Trump’s philosophy towards constituents: “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.” And that is what Olson is doing. 

Back in 2009 Olson had a townhill meeting to discuss healthcare. He brought a lady who claimed under the proposed new healthcare system (ObamaCare) she would be denied medical coverage for her ill son. When challenged on this it was noted that her current healthcare provider, the one Pete Olson was supporting, actually denied her coverage and that very coverage came from the the same service that covered Olson!

BTW. I was the one that challenged Olson.

Waiting for ethics reform from the republicans in Texas is like waiting for the next album by Guns & Roses. It will take a long time and you will probably not like it when it arrives.

According to an article on Empower Texas website, a far right wing PAC, Mayes who is the co-founded of the Chambers County Ethical Government Board, had declared himself the Ethics Czar of the upcoming legislation session. According to his article:

Elected office is supposed to be about public service, not self-service–we are all fed up with politicians profiting off their position. Corruption is an egregious perversion of our constitutional republic and should be dealt with extremely harshly.  People are elected to first, foremost, and always represent the true owners of every elected seat, the voter’s citizens and taxpayers, and never just their own wallets.

Yeah. Right. Mayes is the one who spent $1.5 million of his own money to win the republican primary in HD23, the Galveston County area. He only raised $1.7 million and spent $1.6 million for just 7981 votes. His opponent spent about $149,000 on the primary.

When you look at his financial reports you will find loans and contributions to himself totally $1,485,000, a total of 95% of his entire fundraising efforts. According to his July 2018 report he only raised $74,187, much coming from out of district, and he has only $45,099 cash on hand meaning he has spent about $1.5Million on a State House primary race. 

The Republican Party has been in control of this state for two decades. I cannot remember any major changes to laws concerning ethics or campaign finance reform. They are not interested in this issue. Never has been. Never will be. Neither are republican voters.

Maybe Mayes should push for an end to self financed campaigns instead. He should remember “People are elected to first, foremost, and always represent the true owners of every elected seat, the voter’s citizens and taxpayers, and never just their own wallets.”

Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick has endorsed Pete Flores in the race for Senate in district 19. He has about $12,000 left to run in a district that covers from San Antonio to Big Bend National Park. 

Flores has raised about $60,000 since early 2016 with $37,000 coming from donations ranging from $10,000 – $500. This includes a $10,000 donation from Richard Scott and a $10,000 from Antonio Falcon. For a Senate race this is not a good sign of being competitive.

Abbott has endorsed some strange fundraisers from Flores who will depend upon large donations from Abbott’s buddies to Kathaleen Wall who self financed her congressional campaign with $6million. And lost. Hopefully Flores will lose or else you will see special interest money flooding the district in a runoff.

According to the Texas Tribune:

Complicating the dynamic between Gallego and Gutierrez is a growing Republican effort to unify behind a single candidate — Pete Flores, who ran against Uresti in 2016 — and send him to a runoff in the Democratic-leaning district. That movement became clearer than ever Thursday when Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick jumped into the fray, endorsing Flores over his two lesser-known GOP rivals.

And Dan Patrick says:

“But Pete is reminding District 19 voters that the seat actually belongs to the people. People who have a shitload of money to spend to buy this seat.”

Well, he sort of said that.

I’ve said this before. A socialist is about as popular as herpes at a hot tub party.

According to Newsweek 76% of Americans would not vote for a socialist. They are being generous. Nobody likes a socialist especially as the leader of our country, state or district. Like herpes in a hot tub, a socialist’s ideas will not hurt people, but like herpes, not enough voters are willing to put their speedo on and join your Hot Tub Party. From Newsweek:

Seventy-six percent of Americans said they would not vote for a “socialist” political candidate, while just 24 percent said they would, according to a new Hill.TV/HarrisX American Barometer poll released Tuesday. The poll results fly in the face of a joint effort by Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez to push their Democratic-Socialism platform more into mainstream politics ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.

If the Bernie Sanders Socialists want to gain more traction they might consider dropping the title “socialist”. Being labeled a socialist and campaigning as a socialist is a great way to lose an election for you and your Hot Tub Party. If you want to align yourself with the Democratic Party, do us a favor and drop the title. It doesn’t help. It hurts. As much as you want to think socialists have good ideas  (and they do) that would benefit the country (and they might), as long as you call yourself a socialist you will never get enough voters to risk the dip into your political breeding ground. It’s just that simple. Socialists are not very popular in America. They are considered moochers, lazy, always wanting something for free while others work hard to provide it. Socialists may not like it but that is the reality.

You can be either be a socialist or a Democrat. There is no middle ground. We are Democrats. Nothing more. Nothing less. If you want to run on socialist ideas, do so but just drop the “socialist” crap.

When you say “Socialist” we say “herpes”
Socialist! Herpes!
Socialist! Herpes!

The republican candidates for state wide office have refused to debate their Democratic challengers. Ken Paxton has issued the following excuse from the Dallas Observer:

“Attorney General Paxton will communicate directly with the voters about important issues and his outstanding record of accomplishment the past 4 years, including how he has has spent millions of campaign donations to keep himself out of a federal jail.”

And Dan Patrick issued the following excuse from the Texas Observer:

“It’s no secret Lieutenant Governor Patrick relishes debates, but since his opponent shows no sign of grasping even the most basic rudiments of state government, our campaign has no plans to debate him. Besides I am still too busy working on the bathroom bill during potty breaks.”

Ok. Those are not exactly the quotes, but you get the idea. Sid Miller, the Texas Agriculture Commissioner has declined an invitation from Kim Olson and has issued an official response translated by his political adviser Todd Smith. According to Sid Miller:

“baaack baaack baaack BAA-CAA!”

“Sid Miller says it will be a cold day in the chicken coop before I will take the stage with a women that is taller, smarter, and has more integrity than in her little finger than I have in my entire body!”

Miller continued: “baaack baaack baaaaaack baack”

“Instead of debating his opponent in front of Texas voters, Sid Miller will stick to doing the job for the Texas farmer by endorsing the tariffs by Trump and letting the crops die. The loss of income will help farmers toughen up for the winter.”

So Miller will not debate. Reminds me of Colonel Sanders. Chicken.

From The Lone Star Project

Loaning yourself money to get elected seems to be a thing with republicans including State Senator Joan Huffman.

According to her campaign finance reports Huffman loaned her campaign $890,000 with another $100,000 coming from Lt Governor Dan Patrick and she donated another $101,000. This amount was over 25% of her entire fundraising effort.

She raised a total of $4.9 Million with $2.0 Million coming from donations ranging from $10,000-$150,000. Her top donors were the Weekley brothers for $200,000, Anthony Annuziato for $150,000,  Robert McNair for $115,000, Bob Perry for $192,000, John Nau for $100,000, Stephen Davis for $140,000,  Tilman Fertitta for $60,000,  and Texans for Lawsuit Reform for $325,000. Today Huffman has about $69,000 Cash on Hand.

Huffman is well known for filing the so called “bathroom bill” that wasted considerable amount of time and money for a law that could never be enforced and could probably be used against her, just in case. The bill was flushed late in the session after Huffman listened to overwhelming negative testimony during the hearing. The testimony didn’t matter to her. It was passed immediately after the testimony was over.

I can’t believe he actually said this concerning the San Jacinto River waste pit, a Superfund Site on the east side of the County. From the Baytown Sun:

“I’ve driven by here 100 times, and this is actually the first time I’ve been on the ground down here,” Babin said.  

An EPA dive team discovered 22 small areas measuring up to 50-square-feet earlier this month that confirmed the protective cap was absent and the underlying toxic waste material was exposed. Data indicated that dioxins are still registering nearly as high in concentration as they were in those first days and weeks after Hurricane Harvey when they were more than 70,000 parts per trillion. The latest data found levels up to 60,500 parts per trillion, which is far beyond acceptable, as the EPA mandates cleanups for 30 parts per trillion and up. 

Really? Its not like it hasn’t been in the news. In fact not only has it been in the news, the Harris County Attorney, Vince Ryan, sued to have the pits cleaned. The pits were discovered in 2005 and was a dumping site for companies back in the 1960’s. Since 2005 the community and Harris County has been working to hold those who created this mess accountable. The EPA declared the pits a Superfund site in 2008. The Galveston Bay Foundation has a great collection of information and history about the site at their website.

So it’s not like the San Jacinto Waste Pits just sprang up as Babin was driving around in his district. It has been there for as long as Babin has been in office. It just wasn’t a priority for him especially when he advocates for the end of the EPA by cutting their funding. He also has major donors from the companies in the area who want to be freed from EPA regulations, the type that would prevent Superfund sites.

Babin continued:

“I’ve also heard there is a Space facility on the west side of the district. Maybe I will take a tour.”

Miller is under water on his financial reports. He is what we in Texas call a Texas sized a**hole. When you are looking for the a**hole of Texas, just look for Sid Miller.

In his last report, Miller raised about $63,000, spent $173,000, and has $136,000 Cash on Hand with a $275,000 outstanding loan. He is underwater.

Since running for Texas Agriculture Commissioner in 2014, Miller has raised $1.7 Million for this state wide race. $550,000 came from a couple of individuals who provided loans. He has paid back about $175,000.
Brad Allen loaned $200,000.
Richard Pedale loaned $100,000.
Tramell Crow loaned $250,000.

Of the $1,250,000 actually raised, $362,000 came from 7 individuals:
$97,000 Richard Redalen
$50,000 Donald McGill of McGill Toyota
$60,000 Tramell Crow
$30,000 Timothy Dunn
$25,000 Robert Patton
$25,000 Trevor Rees-Jones
$75,000 Todd Smith

It is difficult to determine from over 700 entries how much has come from PACs since much of the required information on the financial reports is not provided. Maybe I could dig harder on this in the future. For someone who hasn’t had an opponent for the general election in a long while, Miller has spent a ton of money with only $136,000 left and with $275,000 in outstanding loans.